So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits--and the President--Failed on Iraq | 
| Author: Greg Mitchell
Creators: Joseph L. Galloway, Bruce Springsteen
Publisher: Union Square Press
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 9332
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 1402756577
Dewey Decimal Number: 956.704431
EAN: 9781402756573
ASIN: 1402756577
Publication Date: March 4, 2008
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Book Description
In early 2003, Greg Mitchell was one of the few mainstream journalists to seriously question the stated reasons for invading Iraq. In the years since, he has repeatedly challenged the media to probe the conduct of the war and its toll on our troops. Now, after five years of war, he traces the conflict -- from the "runup" to the "surge" -- and the media's coverage of it, in this important collection of commentaries with significant new additions: an original introduction and dozens of pages of fresh material that unify the essays. If a free press is the watchdog of democracy, then Greg Mitchell must be the watchdog of the watchdogs, tracking the performance of the media at Editor & Publisher, the influential magazine of the newspaper industry. Over the past five years, in his widely read column, "Pressing Issues," he has repeatedly been ahead of the curve in intensely scrutinizing both the president and the press--and the controversies swirling around Donald Rumsfeld, Pat Tillman, "Scooter" Libby, Ann Coulter and numerous other figures. His book is a unique history of the entire war--and as topical as today's headlines. Whether writing early warnings that anticipated a long and bloody war, analyzing Stephen Colbert's in-his-face mockery of George W. Bush, or imagining the president confessing his sins to Oprah Winfrey, Greg Mitchell explores how we got into the war in Iraq--and why we just can't seem to get out. With tens of thousands of American troops still in Iraq, debate over the war continues to rage on TV news and across editorial pages. Against this backdrop of controversy, Greg Mitchell is the rare journalist who has seen it all with clear eyes. In So Wrong for So Long, he can finally tell the whole story.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Bushs use of fear & the fear of Bush by the press April 12, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
A must read to see how the fourth leg of our country let us DOWN
 More of Mitchell March 26, 2008
5 out of 20 found this review helpful
I've enjoyed reading Mitchell in the past, and this book is fine as it goes, but, unfortunately, it offers nothing new. Mitchell has been opposing both the war and the Bush administration since day one in his op/eds in Editor & Publisher. This book just carries on the same tradition.
I write this because I expected a bit more from this book than just a rehash of what he has been saying all along. What really gets me is how so many in the media are now saying how they should have done more to oppose the war when their job is to provide us with information so we can decide for ourselves what to do. For instance, Michell's article on Bill Moyer's piece criticizing the news reporting on the war was one step shy of total endorsement. So I'm not at all surprised the Moyers returned the favor by praising Mitchell's book.
I just don't understand how journalists are now saying that their coverage lacked criticism of the Bush administration when there are solid research based studies out there that say the exact opposite; for instance, Bush's War: Media Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age (Communication, Media, and Politics). The author here states that after about 8 weeks following 9/11 that the mainstream media actually began to frame their stories to paint Bush as the enemy. The media and Mitchell ignore these works. I wanted a larger conversation than just with those who oppose the Iraq War.
I also wanted to see someone take on the academic studies, not ignore them because they don't support their point of view. I mean, the information is out there, so how does one explain it? Anyway, if you have not read much of Mitchell's work, then this book will summarize well his (and by extension the mainstream media's) view of media coverage of the war; if you have read Mitchell, then it will seem like a walk down memory lane.
Puts it all in perspective! March 25, 2008
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
This book gives an excellent account of events leading up to Bush's War, and puts the nightly/daily news in perspective. I now look at 24/7 news channels differently, realizing that they need "stories" to fill their air time, even if those stories are only rumors, suggestions, and innuendo. Viewer beware!!
More than just a media critique March 20, 2008
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
Greg Mitchell's book is an excellent critique of the media and its handling of Iraq war, but it also serves as a reminder of everything that has happened in the last five turbulent years. By looking at the war in its entirety through the lens of media coverage, it not only compiles a history of the events of the war, but also a history of opinion and views about the war, and equally important factor in this controversial engagement. His unbiased and skeptical view of the events are an example of how journalists should have treated it from the beginning, and proof that while many major journalists and publications may have botched the coverage, at least one held true to his journalistic principles and remained outside the tidal wave of populr opinion and spin.
Proof the media didn't have to blow it on Iraq March 19, 2008
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
How cool is this? Bruce Springsteen wants you to buy this book. Mitchell, the editor of Editor and Publisher who hobnobbed with rock 'n' roll glitterati during his stint at the legenday magazine Crawdaddy! Springsteen says in a brief (i.e., it's a lot more concise than "Jungleland") preface that Mitchell's book "is to remind us that we all need to be more questioning, skeptical and savvy than ever in assessing information that's presented to us. And we ought to teach our children to do the same."
"So Wrong for So Long" is certainly a big start in the right direction. Using a variety of writing techniques and approaches that stretch over five agonizing years of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the collected works touch on the wide scope of journalistic malpractice that stretches to the present, including the early ignoring of Abu Ghraib, civilian casualties, Haditha, and military suicides, among others. One thing stood out as a recurring and awful theme: That it didn't have to be this way, that America's journalists had plenty of information that was readily available in late 2002 and early 2003 to show that the case for the war was partly overhyped but mostly bogus.
This story has been told a number of times since 2004, when it became more acceptable, even "cool" for a time, to criticize not only the war but the journalists who covered -- but mostly failed to cover -- the bandwagon rush to launch it. But "So Wrong for So Long" takes a different approach, and it's a more powerful one than most of the other Monday morning quarterbacking that's out there. The book collects some 75 of Mitchell's columns that were written in real time, with some additional commentary to provide the context.
Thus, rather than some writer-guy in 2008 pontificating that, sure, it might have been possible to aggressively question that case that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction or meaningful ties to al-Qaeda, we can see Greg Mitchell and a few other brave journalists doing exactly that -- and questioning why others did not do the same.
One notable example is a Jan. 23, 2003 (about two months before the war) column entitled "On the War Path." In it, an array of well-known voices, like the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, the Boston Globe's Mark Jurkowitz, Arianna Huffington and Richard Reeves voice a host of misgivings that were getting little play at the time: Why was there such little reporting both of the anti-war protests and the deep but quieter misgivings shared by millions of Americans, of why we were attacking Iraq but not North Korea or whether the president's anger at Saddam was personal?
Greg Mitchell and company were asking the right questions before March 2003, and while he's a great journalist, he also holds no magical powers -- just an inquisitive mind and a sense (acquired in part through his excellent reporting in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings) of a world outside of Beltway spin rooms and steakhouses. As good as this collection is, there are times you'll want to throw it against the wall in frustration there were not 100 or 200 more like him when America needed them.
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